Mark reviews a bootleg recording and we discuss what Yes can mean by playing Yessongs live in Japan. Also, I continue reading the Bill Bruford Autobiography and I look forward to the 5th Anniversary celebrations next week.

Yessongs live?

What can they mean?

Are bootlegs worth it?

Listen to the episode then let us know what you think!

Show notes and links

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Theme music

The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org

21 thoughts on “A Bootleg Review and Yessongs live? 244”

Hello Kevin,
I’m catching up on the podcast this week, and am behind in replying about the last episode.
You had asked what Yes swag (i.e. merchandising) we wanted. I would love a copy of the shirt that Trevor Rabin wears in the 9012 Live video, and which he has apparently given to his son Ryan. There’s a photograph of him wearing it, and if it’s not the original, then it’s a terrific copy which someone must have made him. I don’t seem to be able to attach a photo, but I’m sure it’s not hard to find the picture online.

You can also second me for a set of Yes action figures, complete with stage set, though that would be a huge set once you make figures of all the band members through the years.

Mark, the songs on the second side of your bootleg CD are from the famous concert at Queens Park Rangers football ground in London which was part of the Relayer tour, not the Solo albums tour. They probably omitted the songs that had sound problems. There are videos of this gig out there too. Cheers, Ken

Nice to hear from you.
Thank you for that bit of information. ..I was a little unsure as they put the date of those songs as October 5 1975…didn’t realize it was the same QRP show I’ve seen on Youtube. That explains a lot. Jon’s guitar on some of those songs were so damn loud. .no wonder they didn’t put many songs on that disc.

That whole QPR show is just amazing; equally amazing is that we can watch it now, forty-plus years on. I always wondered if there were more live recordings of the Moraz era out there… apparently the BBC broadcast it once and then stuck it away in a vault somewhere and THANK YOU to whoever found it and threw it up on YouTube!

Hey Joseph,
Nice to hear from you this week…several times I see. Haha..that’s great …discussion is encouraged.
But yeah it amazing that such a great concert from that long ago is available to watch. Well not their best performance by a long shot. ..it is interesting and show a band who truly enjoyed improvising. Those were the days.

Yes, the QPR (Loftus Road football ground) was in May 1975 and the solo albums did not come out until the autumn of that year, no solo album material as such was played until 1976 as far as I am aware. I saw that tour (Relayer) two nights running at the Liverpool Empire and it was superb, a real show and it seems incredible now that they managed to fit 3 X 20 minute epics into a concert that began with a support group (Gryphon), some of whom played on an instrumental track on Steve’s Beginnings album. Interesting discussions from yourselves as usual. My understanding of the band playing Yessongs and Tales in Japan is that it will be a selection of classic songs that are on Yessongs rather than a re-creation of that album per se, which wouldn’t really make sense as well as simply being too long overall! Hoping we will get Tales in the UK next year and hoping against hope that they might venture a bit further into representing all sides of the album in some way. I’ve a hunch that they will try out the whole thing on the cruise next year – that would be quite something!

Thank you for commenting. You theory seem to make sense about them doing some select classics from that album. Although it seems before the album series started they were doing that every tour….to a degree. Most of the songs on Yessongs have been played several times on several tours…that’s why I guess people got puzzled over the Yessongs reference on the promo poster.
As for Tales on the Cruise from the Edge. Makes perfect sense. Hope they do it.

ARW vs Yes setlists and styles discussion – We are lucky to have a choice between going to see Yes classics played in a more traditional way and by the current Yes line-up or (possibly) very quite different arrangements and with material covering a wider gamut played by ARW or, indeed both. From the audience point of view this neatly side-steps the issue facing most bands of whether to develop into new territory or stick with the crowd pleasers that made the what they are.

I’m looking forward to hearing what ARW produce – I’m sure it will be closer to Yes in style than Anderson’s efforts with the Yes tracks on APB (which were really a waste of space in my mind on an otherwise excellent album)) but will hopefully add a different dimension to the music.

Regarding “Yessongs”, whilst i think it is highly unlikely, for reasons mentioned by my namesake above, that Yes would not include an extended Perpetual Change, Fish or Six Wives, I don’t see any reason why Geoff Downes or Billy Sherwood shouldn’t have their own solo or “feature” numbers. I, for one, would love to see Billy have a few minutes to be able to extemporise on the bass guitar. [Heresy Alert] Dare I say it I suspect he’d produce something superior to Chris’s solos.

The arguments between the “THIS is Yes” crowd and the “No, THIS is Yes” crowd are getting a bit silly: if you think about it, this band has had enough members come and go now that you could have three bands with legitimate claims to the name, and still have enough leftover members to act as spares in case of illness or injury! 🙂

Thanks for the comments.
I have to agree that I’m hoping the ARW reworkings are more Yes in style them what Jon did on APB. To be honest I think I’ve watched that once since I got it …I found it very underwhelming. Which bothered me because I love Jon and his solo material…was hoping it would be as good. But a smart man once said “Sometimes people just run out of good ideas”.

As for Geoff and Billy doing solo sections…I’m not sure they will do that especially if they are trying to focus on classic songs. Billy doing a better solo section??? I CANT BELIEVE WHAT IM HEARING!!!

Just joking. ..hahaha. Hey another wise man said “Eventually the student surpasses the teacher”. You never know Billy could do a piece to eclipse The Fish. But Yes fans have to open to that idea..not sure of some of the old guard fans could be that open.

Well, the new show format is certainly providing us with some WIDE-ranging discussions to comment on! So many things I could say here, but I think I’ll spare you the tedium of yet another epic-length comment from me this week.

Here’s the one brief item that stood out to me, from an off-hand remark by Kevin:

My candidate for “The Album Series concert tour that Yes is most unlikely to undertake”: that would, of course, be the “90125-Big Generator” show!

Yes it’s unlikely they would do a album series that consisted of both 90125 and Big Generator. Mainly because I think Steve’s ego couldn’t handle it. But I still stand by comment I made on the podcast not long ago. That playing either 90125 or Big Generator might bring out some different or just more fans in general. Let’s face it…and this isthe fact that people like Steve ddon’t like hearing…90125 is still the best selling album in their entire catalog…and the 90125 tour was one of the longest and most successful tours they ever did.
Some people still have a hard time with that.

Kevin,
I tried leaving a recorded message but it didn’t work. Want to congratulate you on 5 years doing the podcast. I only discovered it a short while ago, but have really enjoyed it. Thanks for keeping the Yes flame alive. High vibrations go on.

I started to get excited about the upcoming ARW concerts after your discussion and looked up the local dates only to find out that it is Thanksgiving weekend here in the US and I will be out of town for a wedding. They are playing 2 dates in the SF Bay area. I might possibly be able to make one of them. We’ll see.

Your mention of Yessongs brought back some great memories. Sorry if I’ve mentioned this before. Yessongs blew me away when it first came out as had Fragile and CttE. I hadn’t heard The Yes Album at that point. Yours Is No Disgrace and Perpetual Change are fantastic on Yessongs. When I finally did hear TYA, I was disappointed in those original versions of those songs. I’ve come to see them as beautifully performed and recorded, but the Yessongs versions are still my preference for the sheer energy and hard-rocking-ness of the performances.

Excellent comment Guy. I too was well familiar with Yessongs before I heard The Yes Album. When first listening to the latter, I was so looking forward to the amazing keyboard solo at the end of Starship Trooper only to be disappointed by Kaye’s lack of pyrotechnics.
The Fish is also a stand out track when compared to the studio version.